broke it

first of all, why does everyone who reads my blog hate poetry?

what's that all about?

you probably hate puppies, too.
and rainbows.
and smiling.
you are all philistines, and it is weird.

but whatever. We'll move on.

My little brother, Daniel, came over tonight. Daniel is by far my favorite sibling, mostly because he called me up at noon today and said, "Hey, do you want me to come babysit tonight?" and I was like "YES! YES! YES! LOVE! YES!" because it is hard to be articulate when overcome with shock and joy.

(yes, joy. I'm just saying. Sorry other siblings, but having someone offer unsolicited baby-sitting might be the best thing that has happened to me since...ever.)

(i'm such a nerd. It hurts me, it really does.) (but wait! I'm about to get even nerdier.)

So, thanks to Dan, Chris and I went out, had a lovely time, and then after some debate decided what we really wanted to do next was go home and play a board game.

(you didn't believe me about the nerdier part, did you? you should never underestimate my powers of nerdiness.)

So we came home and challenged Daniel to a round of Ticket to Ride.
(It's a great game by the way.)

And our boys, up in their beds, heard us come home and decided this meant they don't have to stay in bed. We could hear them running and jumping and giggling and hiding upstairs in their room.

Neither of us really wanted to deal with it. We both sat there with our heads cocked, one ear towards the staircase, when Chris turned to me and said, "Hey! Why don't they ever get along like this during the day?"

and I laughed.

here's the thing: Michael and William are 19 months apart. They are best little buddies, and play together pretty much all day long, but their play is punctuated by fights and tears and "He took my toooooyyyy!!!"s and "He won't shaaaaaaaaaareeee!"s and "He touched meeeeee!"s.

and on and on and on.

After bedtime, though, it's another story. A fantastic story, full of sunshine and puppies and rainbows. (probably poetry, too.) it's like some magical friendship switch has been flipped, and all of a sudden there's no fighting, no pushing, no tears. minimal arguing.
just lots of laughing and conspiring.
It's a beautiful thing to see.
(sure, they're conspiring against us, but still.)

However. It is after bedtime, and they are supposed to be in bed. So the next time I went upstairs, I made it clear to William that he is NOT to get out of bed again. And even clearer to Michael that if (ha! when) William got out of bed again he is NOT to participate.

The next thing we hear from them is William crying like his heart is broken.
because he tried to sneak into Michael's bed again.
And Michael kicked him out.
With his foot.

...I broke the magic friendship switch.

that's just shoddy mothering, right there.